This invention relates to passive television program guides, and more particularly, to techniques for providing local information with such passive television program guides.
As used herein the term "local information" includes information related to local events (concerts, shows, community events, etc.), as well as local advertising.
Passive television program guides provide a scrolling or paged list of television program listings on a dedicated television channel. A television user may view the television program listings by tuning to the dedicated channel. The upper portion of a passive program guide display may be used to display advertising videos and associated text descriptions. The content of the text descriptions may be targeted toward particular regions. Passive television program guides are not capable of providing the user with any interactive features. (Interactive features include such advanced operations as displaying program listings in user-selected formats, listing programs by genre, ordering pay-per-view.)
Because passive television program guide advertisements may be distributed nationally from a central facility, such advertisements are suitable for promoting products and services on a national basis. If passive program guide advertisements are distributed only on a national basis, however, users will not be provided with as much useful local information as might otherwise be possible.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a passive television program guide system in which users may be provided with local program guide advertising.